Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev
and Flight Engineers Cady Coleman and Ron Garan of NASA and Alexander Samokutyaev
and Andrey Borisenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency paid tribute to the
late mother of Italian Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency
with a moment of silence and a view of Italy out of the window of the Cupola
at 9:05 a.m. EDT on May 4, 2011. The moment of silence was observed as well
at the Mission Control Centers in Houston; Huntsville, Alabama; Korolev, Russia;
Munich, Germany and Tsukuba, Japan. Nespoliís mother, Maria Motta, passed away
on May 2 in the town of Verano Brianza, Italy, near Milan,
after a lengthy illness. She was 78 years old.